“Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq, because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching . . .”
There it is again, that choking lie, so smoothly administered - with just enough fear to help America gag down all that righteousness.
President Bush told it again in his final State of the Union address the other night, of course. What choice did he have? The truth, coming from him at this point, would be . . . too weird, too offensive, impossible to comprehend.
But the truth is that we’ve already failed in Iraq, and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia - failed with consequences beyond reckoning. God knows someone will have to take a swig of political courage and acknowledge it one of these days, simply to stop the lie - the lies, a governmental cluster bomb of them - from doing further harm.
It’s common knowledge now that we “went to war on a lie” - the WMD scam - but what isn’t common knowledge is how the war is sustained on a daily basis by lies and partial truths and desperate, behind-the-scenes financial damage control. The war is all weapons systems and public relations, with the reality of wrecked countries and wrecked lives and a hemorrhaging of the national treasury suspended in media hoodoo and denial.
Consider the number 72,000. This number - of total U.S. battlefield casualties in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, through Jan. 5, 2008 - is simple enough, but as I ponder the fact that Paul Sullivan and his organization, Veterans for Common Sense, had to wrest it from the Department of Defense with a Freedom of Information Act request, and the fact that the only media outlet to pick up on it so far is the Scottish newspaper The Herald, I begin to grasp the extent of the deception in place sustaining the war on terror.
The reason that the casualty totals reported are far lower, Sullivan explained to me, is that the Defense Department releases the stats on only one category of battlefield casualty to the media, the number of GIs “wounded” in action, that is, harmed by the instrumentation of war: bullet, shrapnel or knife.
A GI who cracks his head on the windshield of his Humvee in a crash, though he may have suffered brain damage and had to be evacuated from the battlefield, is considered “injured,” not “wounded,” Sullivan explained, and thus doesn’t show up in the figure the DoD releases and the media misleadingly report. Likewise, a GI who suffers a heart attack, or, let’s say, one of those desert mystery illnesses, or a severe emotional collapse, is “ill,” not “wounded,” and is also MIA from the official casualty count. And in this way does the war remain a tad more statistically palatable to a distracted public.
“This administration has a concerted plan to conceal the human and financial costs of these two wars to maintain public support,” said Sullivan, a Gulf War 1 vet and former Veterans Administration project manager who was blowing the whistle on the shoddy quality of vets’ health care long before the Washington Post “broke” the Walter Reed scandal a year ago.
“There are some in the VA - top political appointees - who are fundamentally opposed to providing health care to vets,” Sullivan went on, talking about the deeper deceptions of the war on terror that keep the political debate focused on vague future “consequences of failure” rather than the present-day consequences of a criminally inept, shoot-from-the-hip foreign policy of aggression.
It is at this level of deception that things get horrific: in the denial of care for physically and, especially, emotionally wounded vets - men and women suffering from the private hell of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“VA hospitals and clinics have already treated 263,909 unplanned patients from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,” according to a Vets for Common Sense press release. “On top of that, VA reported 245,034 unanticipated disability claims from veterans of the two wars.”
Note well the words “unplanned” and “unanticipated.” This facet of the Bush administration’s lack of planning for its invasions has so far escaped significant notice. Apparently the neocon brain trust expected such a cakewalk that the costs and logistics of GI medical care weren’t taken into account. Sullivan said he fully expects the VA to face as many as 700,000 patient claims - including staggering numbers of PTSD claims as our battle-weary troops “deploy for a third or fourth combat tour in an escalating war that surrounds our troops with 360-degree combat 24 hours per day” - which could run up a tab of $700 billion. The only way to control this monster expense is routine claim denial.
“This administration is so absolutely corrupt, incompetent and malevolent, it pales anything that came before it,” Sullivan said. “Why is our economy tanking? The war, the war, the war.”
Note particularly that the human and financial costs Sullivan and others are making are not “projections” for an endless war but estimates based on where things stand at the moment. But this is a war we can keep on losing into the indefinite future.
Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com or visit his Web site at commonwonders.com.
© 2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
I just can’t write it any better than I did.
VETS
He looked for enemies on the streets of Baghdad, searching into every nook and cranny hoping to last a time .
Now he searches for friends in every nook and cranny as he walks the streets and alleys of city, USA .
In a jungle, a rice paddy and mountainous terrain he left a buddy, a mind, a part physical and hoped for understanding and only what was deserved . Is that a crime ?
It was a budgetary consideration said politics as you are only 11% of the population and not enough of you vote to get what you should and at the least try to make you ok .
These are the faces of today, still, from a time of 40 plus or minus years ago to a desert campaign of months and an occupation of 5 years to today where depleted uranium will rule the day for years to come .
Of course all Vets count but this is for all the ones left without a home, a family, a Doctor or even the barest amenities not even a crumb .
A heart hurts that any soul should be among these yet even Jesus averred that some of these would always be with us.
Yet those who go to war for a people, whether warrior or citizen soldier should have all that a representative government can do for them, all without a fuss .
All of this is for the ladies and the guys .
With love to all, A Vet, Tony 11/11/07
Must Be Free: Well said. Thank you.
What a sad statement to the meaning of our country. I grieve but feel impotant to help. I vote, I write, I make phone calls. All to no avail. Today, I feel pretty hopeless……….
“the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching”, but they beat the heck out of what passes for success around here.
Helath care again. Troops should stop whining and accept what Bsh and the military gives them. If they did not know what Bush and top officials thought about them and health care before enlisting, they were fools. And deserve what they get. They do, after all, go ti Iraq and kill innocents, who are then turned into “insurgents”. Most of the troops get to come home, not to the cemetary.
Someone needs to ask every presidential candidate how they expect to pay for our continued occupation of Iraq. Let’s do some real cost/benefit analysis here!
Let’s do a cost analysis of the increase in suicides of veterans followed by damage done by all of the PTSD scarred returnees - most undiagnosed ’til later.
I remember walking on a street in San Francisco with my adorably cute little boy. He was about 4 at the time.
A homeless man looked at my son, and waited until he was right by him, and then lunged, grimaced and screamed at him.
Sure, he was damaged, he was a victim of society, he was used and tossed aside.
I would gladly have killed him.
Its simple, really. The US can take this, already the Iraqi insurgency is showing signs of wear and fatigue. 20,000 insurgents killed in action (conservative estimate) so far. Thousands more crippled and tens of thousands in prison. They simple cannot go on forever; and they know it.5 years from now there will probably not be any resistance at all. The important fact is; if we leave we create the impression the US can be stood up to. That will cause MORE people to challenge us, not less. Meaning more wars.
“Someone needs to ask every presidential candidate how they expect to pay for our continued occupation of Iraq.”
They intend to eat our children!
Has Bush been checked for reptilian blood?
O, what a wonderful war!! It can be used to draw down social security funds, deny healthcare support to more children,end all entitlements, neglect National Parks,terminate Medicaid and Medicare.
CONversation: I’m not sure what your point is. Do you have any idea of how many people are in the Middle East? Or the concept of sovereignty? Do you understand that we invaded a sovereign country? Do you understand that for every “insurgent” the US kills, four more will rise to defend their country from the invaders? Do you really beleive that if the Bitish had stayed for “just” 5 more years that Americans would have just given up? You whole line of logic is WAY out there and totally unrealistic. Just look at the Palestinians. Are they ever going to give up trying to take back their homes from the Israeli invaders? Not going to happen. Further, if the US would just apologise, withdraw, do reparations, and promise to NEVER invade another country ever again, maybe the outcome you see would be vastly different.
Conversation: The US can be stood up to. The US is not so hot. In fact, it can be defeated, and has been savagely defeated in war games simulating war with Iran. You are ill with the American mentality and will only come to your senses when you get slapped around and humiliated, which is very likely to happen. Your message embodies what is wrong with the US. Thank you for your service.
Ditto lizard. CON is short for neo-con. Facist garbage.
Without a doubt, the US has lost everything. We are broke, we have a dictator as a leader, and we have been domestically and globally humiliated. And these poor saps are dying for it. Bring ‘em on! It can’t get any worse…
To CON : with tough words like yours , I am assuming that you are with a member of the occupying , American forces in Iraq . If not then , you are an easily-ignorable wind-bag. Those who can , do while those who can’t or won’t , talk